There was no name attached to this article so I don’t know who to credit or thank for sharing this inspiring story with us. It just shows us how God works sometimes in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. I hope you enjoy it as I did.

This individual told about their grandfather on their mother’s side who worked as a handyman around town. The church they attended was planning to send some crates filled with donated goods to the victims of a terrible typhoon in Asia. So they asked Grandpa Bill to construct some crates for items they were planning to ship. After finishing the crates, it was time for packing them with shoes, socks, clothes, blankets, toys, etc. Once they were packed, they were sealed and ready for pick up by the shipping company. After getting home, Bill reached into his shirt pocket to get his glasses for reading the newspaper, but they were gone. He looked everywhere but could not find them. He even went back to the church to see if they had fallen on the ground or someone had turned them in to the church office but found nothing.

He had just purchased those glasses and didn’t have the funds to replace them because handymen didn’t make that much in those days. But he kept mentally retracing his steps and replayed where he had been and what he had done. Suddenly, he came to the conclusion that somehow the glasses must have slipped out of his shirt pocket and fallen into one of the crates. His brand new glasses were already headed for Asia!

Grandpa Bill was an independent man, so any offer from this man’s mom to replace them was graciously turned down. He wanted to earn enough to pay for them himself. But he was still somewhat upset at himself for not paying attention and regretted that his glasses had been lost. In fact, one day he looked up to heaven and said, somewhat kiddingly, “Lord, I was building those crates for you. I did it as my contribution to missions. At least You could have helped me notice when my glasses fell into one of those crates!”

Many months later, the director of the orphanage in Asia was on furlough in the United States. He wanted to visit all the churches that supported his work there, so he came to speak one Sunday at the church where Grandpa Bill attended. The missionary began by thanking the people for their faithfulness in supporting the orphanage. “But most of all,” he said, “I must thank you for the pair of glasses you sent. You see, the typhoon that just swept through that area, destroy part of the orphanage, including the office where I had left my glasses. We were quite far from any shopping center where I could get them replaced. And I needed to stay there with the children as we tried to clean up as best we could and I needed my glasses desperately for reading. So I borrowed a pair from one of the workers, but they were not right for my vision.

That was until the crates arrived. When my staff began removing the contents, they found a pair of glasses wedged between some blankets and some clothes in one of the crates. The missionary paused long enough to let his words sink in. Then, still gripped with the wonder of it all, he continued: “Folks, when I tried on those glasses, it was as though they had been custom made just for me! So I want to thank you for being a part of such a great miracle.

The people listened, happy for the miraculous glasses. But those who had packed the crates were sure that the missionary must have confused their church with another. None of them remember stuffing any glasses between the blankets and clothes. That was, except for Grandpa Bill. He was sitting quietly in the back with tears streaming down his face. Grandpa Bill, just an ordinary carpenter, realized that the Master Carpenter had used him in an extraordinary way. So instead of blaming God for losing his glasses, he looked up and thanked God for letting him lose them.

There are times we want to blame God instead of thanking him! Perhaps that is something we ought to try more often. We don’t always understand when things don’t go our way; when we didn’t get the job we applied for; when our car broke down at the wrong place and the wrong time; when our nice carpet got stained with spilled strawberry Kool-Aid and had to be replaced. But what we don’t know is that the job we didn’t get went to someone who needed it more than we did; that the garage mechanic who fixed our car needed that extra money to pay his rent; or the owner of the store where we bought the new carpet was blessed by the profit they made on the sale because it helped them pay one of the workers they were planning to let go.

So instead of being upset and blaming God for not taking care of you the way you thought He should, just look up and say, “Lord Jesus, thank you for not letting me get what I wanted, but I’m sure there had to be a good reason that ended up helping someone else who needed what I didn’t get more than I did. In other words, think of these things as “perfect mistakes.” Just remember, God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.1 – Dr. Robert R Seyda